Random Facts

[Leyrann]

Anyone got any? A few to start it off:

 

Dicetosser1 will, after the updated Points Page, be the Black Tower member with most points to spend.

 

I am the only staff member with an element angreal.

 

Today in 1928 the first Mickey Mouse cartoon premiered.

[Songstress]

Today is my grandmother's 92nd birthday!

[Leyrann]

Congrats!

[Shad_]

I will be going downstairs to get a popsicle, but I might change my mind and eat something else.

[Niniel]

Mother´s day in my country is not until the 28th. 

[Leyrann]

Me and my brothers are so bad at remembering mother's day that my mother was already happy with me telling her that I had thought of it before the day itself, but had forgotten to buy anything for her.   

[Niniel]

lol 

[Locke]

I will be going downstairs to get a popsicle, but I might change my mind and eat something else.

 

this is deep

[Leyrann]

Dutch politicians figured out (after two months) that incompatible parties cannot form a coalition.

 

[Niniel]

Only two months! 

[Leyrann]

Impressive, isn't it?

 

Maybe we'll have a coalition within a year this way.

 

In all seriousness though, I'm not sure if it's even possible to form a majority coalition after the last elections. The only coalition that seems kinda logical has been veto'd by the largest party...

[Shad_]

You could be like my country and only count the votes in areas favorable to your party. 

[Leyrann]

Yeah, we could be like your country and ignore 45% of the votes in every state/province/whatever the country is divided in.

 

Or we could count every single vote and divide them evenly.

 

And then have some politicians ignore ~13% of the voters (the second largest group) because they don't like the guy they voted for.

[Shad_]

Hopefully you all can work something out without destroying the basic framework of your political system.

 

Things are pretty systemic here, from the local levels on up.  The party that came in second is not only in control, but rules with its largest majority in 100 years.

[Leyrann]

You mean on a more local level?

 

Otherwise I think I either missed the point of your post or your location is not actually Pennsylvania.

[Shad_]

Probably missed the point. Issues at a local level that make some votes count less than others add up across the nation to generate a massive disparity by the time it reaches the federal level.

For instance, the Republican party gained 48.18% of the vote here while the Democratic party gained 47.46%.   This 0.72% gap explodes into a 44% gap in Congress due to state-sanctioned gerrymandering.  You get the same issue in state government due to local-sanctioned gerrymandering.  Etc.

 

Obviously some states are more fair about their vote distribution than others.  Pennsylvania is one of the worst and always has been, it's just which party gets to exploit it that periodically changes.

[Leyrann]

I still don't understand half of that, but I do know that in the Netherlands, except for the Senate, all votes weigh equal for everything.

 

As for the Senate, we have "provinces" as the one-level-below-national level, you vote for your province, and they then vote for the Senate, but it's still the people sitting there voting for their own parties, so I believe it's reasonably honest with what people voted for the provinces.

 

The worse thing is that if you read all party programs with what they want to do and vote the one you like most, chances are your vote is going to things you don't like, because there are a lot of Dutch politicians and parties who don't mind breaking their promises. Sometimes so much that you wonder wheter they're doing it on purpose just to give us the finger.

[Leyrann]

Random fact: Water takes a very, very long time to boil.

[Leyrann]

It's so lazy.

[Leyrann]

Did you know (and this one's actually pretty interesting) that if you start swirling in partly-boiling water (basically it's 100 degrees celcius at some points but not all) you get a freaking boiling mealstrom in the center?

[Ironeyes]

Did you know (and this one's actually pretty interesting) that if you start swirling in partly-boiling water (basically it's 100 degrees celcius at some points but not all) you get a freaking boiling mealstrom in the center?

I'm totally trying that next time I make pasta

[LedZepMan]

Random fact: Water takes a very, very long time to boil.

Are you fairly close to sea level? I've heard that makes water take long to boil.

 

I'm up in the Rocky Mtns, and it takes like 5-7 minutes to come to a boil

[Leyrann]

Well, I do kinda live in the Netherlands.

 

But it was also quite a bit of water I was waiting for. Of course, it depends on all kinds of things like how much heat you're putting in, how much water it is, how warm it is when you start heating it up, etc.

 

@Marsh You should. I discovered it by accident when I was swirling the water because I wanted to prove to myself it was on average 100 degrees so that I could put the pasta in.

 

Pasta was amazing, by the way. So good I could barely get off my seat until now and now I still have to do the dishes. :(

[Leyrann]

I'M GONNA BE AN UNCLE!!!!!!!!!

[Songstress]

I'M GONNA BE AN UNCLE!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations Uncle Ley!!